A politician on marijuana

Posted by Marc Hodak on June 17, 2007 under Collectivist instinct | Comments are off for this article

A recent Sun article includes this tidbit:

Governor Rell of Connecticut, who is considering a medical marijuana bill that lawmakers sent to her desk earlier this month, has also given mixed signals about her position. She has said it’s important to help seriously ill people alleviate their pain, but has expressed fear that legalizing the drug would undermine the message that recreational use of marijuana is dangerous.

So, the Governor begins with a well-worn lie. In fact, recreational use of marijuana is no more dangerous than recreationally driving around town, possibly much less so. She then continues with the awesome hubris of power: Who is Governor Rell to make trade-offs for seriously ill people trying to alleviate their pain vs. the “message” conveyed by legalizing the drug? It’s legal to clog your toilet with tennis balls, to drink red ink from a pen, and to fill one’s underwear with polyester carpet remnants. What does that say to the people? To our children?

Politicians, get over yourself. Realistically, the only people likely to pay attention to your moralistic messages about how they should live their lives are people who are smoking something.